A research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Mayo Clinic and other institutions has identified a new class of drugs that in animal models dramatically slows the aging process—alleviating symptoms of frailty, improving cardiac function and extending a healthy lifespan. The new research was published March 9 online ahead of print by the journal Aging Cell. The scientists coined the term "senolytics" for the new class of drugs. "We view this study as a big, first step toward developing treatments that can be given safely to patients to extend healthspan or to treat age-related diseases and disorders," said TSRI...

A Minnesota man saw his wife for the first time in 10 years— and most of his grandchildren for the first time ever— after receiving a bionic eye at the Mayo Clinic earlier this month, ValleyNewsLive.com reported. Allen Zderad, 68, has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative, genetic eye disease that affects the part of the retina that translates light into sight. The condition progressively stole the Forest Lake man’s vision over the course of his life. Zderad uses a cane to walk and has leaned on his wife, Carmen Zderad, as his sighted guide since losing his ability to see. “Ten...

Freedom: It's bad enough that the president's health insurance takeover costs more, breaks his pledge of letting you keep your plan and diminishes choice. It actually restricts your travels too. 'We have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in." Those words from President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, standing at the Berlin Wall, neatly illustrated the moral superiority of the free West over the Soviet bloc. But Americans are now about to find themselves grappling with their own bureaucratic Berlin Wall. The American Thinker's Stella Paul has exposed the virtually unnoticed fact that within...

Chicago (AFP) - A French family who came to the United States for medical treatment said they were stranded in Chicago after British Airways determined their son was too fat to fly. Kevin Chenais, 22, spent a year and a half at the Mayo Clinic for treatment of a hormone disorder which led him to weigh 500 pounds. His mother was near tears as she described the family’s problems to the local CBS affiliate. "We blame British Airways because now they just leave us, and they brought us here,” Christina Chenais told the station. "If they could bring him here...

"Dr. Elhagaly is no longer employed or caring for patients at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea. We are working with his patients to transition their care to another physician. Because this is a personnel issue, we cannot comment further on Dr. Elhagaly’s employment status." "Female circumcision in children, referred to as female genital mutilation in U.S. legal statutes, is a felony-level child abuse crime."

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Mayo Clinic says its Minnesota employees who are in same-sex domestic partnerships will have to get married if they want their partners to remain eligible for health insurance -- now that the state has legalized same-sex marriage. Mayo Clinic spokesman Bryan Anderson told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that the clinic hasn't yet determined the deadline for same-sex couples to get married. Same-sex marriages will be legal in Minnesota as of Thursday. "Mayo has long had a policy providing same-sex domestic partner benefits because those affected were not allowed to be married. That policy notes that marriage would...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Jesse Jackson, Jr., a U.S. Congressman from Illinois, will remain under the care of physicians to manage and treat his depression, according to a statement on Wednesday from the Mayo Clinic. Jackson, who is reportedly under investigation for possible misuse of campaign funds, left the clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on Tuesday, according to Nicholas Hanson, a Mayo spokesman. "He and his family remain grateful for support and prayers offered and received on his behalf," Hanson said in the statement. Jackson is being treated for bipolar disorder, a psychological condition marked by extreme mood swings. The news follows...

Report: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. releases robocall, tells supporters 'I am human'By Jonathan Easley - 10/20/12 07:07 PM ET The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) sent out an automated message to constituents in his district on Saturday, asking voters to stick by him through his recent spate of difficulties. “Like many human beings, a series of events came together in my life at the same time and they have been difficult to sort through,” Jackson says in the call. “I am human. I am doing my best. I am trying to sort through them...

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has been absent from Congress for almost three months — and today, his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said he could not even guess when his son might return to Capitol Hill. “I don’t want to hazard a guess,” Jackson said in an interview on the ABC News/Yahoo Democratic National Convention live stream. “I mean, I’m a father in this, not — not medical adviser,” he said. “He must make that decision as to whether … he can continue to serve.” When Jesse Jackson Jr. abruptly took a leave of absence from Congress in early June,...

The Mayo Clinic said Monday that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is under treatment there for the condition. Jackson has been hospitalized at the Rochester, Minn., center and absent from Congress since June 10. He’s been suffering from massive depression and gastrointestinal issues, a likely complication from a risky weight-loss surgery known as a “duodenal switch.”

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.is undergoing treatment for bipolar II depression at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the facility said today. Mayo Clinic said the diagnosis came after extensive evaluation. “Congressman Jackson is responding well to the treatment and regaining his strength,” it said in the statement. The statement added: “Many Americans have bipolar disorder. Bipolar II disorder is a treatable condition that affects parts of the brain controlling emotion, thought and drive and is most likely caused by a complex set of genetic and environmental factors. Congressman Jackson underwent bariatric surgery in 2004, specifically a duodenal switch. This type...

CHICAGO — U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Chicago Democrat who took a hushed medical leave two months ago, is being treated for bipolar disorder, the Mayo Clinic announced Monday. The Rochester, Minn.-based clinic specified his condition as Bipolar II, which is defined as periodic episodes of depression and hypomania. Hypomania is a less serious form of mania. "Congressman Jackson is responding well to the treatment and regaining his strength," the clinic said in a statement...

Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., whose whereabouts haven't been disclosed since he mysteriously took a medical leave several weeks ago, is being treated for depression at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., according to a statement Friday from the hospital. Jackson is undergoing an extensive inpatient evaluation for depression and for gastrointestinal issues, according to the statement, which also provided the first details about his medical condition. But it provided no details about where the congressman, the son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, had previously been staying. [Snip] The timing of [Jackson's] leave has raised questions, in part because...

Fellow FReepers (sorry in advance for the long post)- This is an update to a thread I posted on 3/31/12, and an urgent request for further prayers for my beautiful wife Nikki. God bless those of you who were able to help by praying for us on that thread! We KNOW that your prayers have helped our family, as I will outline in this update. More help is needed though! On that Saturday morning, while my wife and I, & our 4 children were standing around the kitchen island talking about the upcoming day, she collapsed. I rushed Nikki to...

The onset of wrinkles, muscle wasting and cataracts has been delayed and even eliminated in mice, say researchers in the US.It was done by "flushing out" retired cells that had stopped dividing. They accumulate naturally with age. The scientists believe their findings could eventually "really have an impact" in the care of the elderly. Experts said the results were "fascinating", but should be taken with a bit of caution. The study, published in Nature, focused on what are known as "senescent cells". They stop dividing into new cells and have an important role in preventing tumours from progressing. These cells...

The rules of how to treat cardiac arrest are being re-written at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Technology, new drug treatments, conventional CPR and the use of hypothermia are now being coordinated with great affect - in one case reviving a man who'd been clinically dead for more than an hour. (Video and transcript available at link)

The rules of how to treat cardiac arrest are being re-written at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Technology, new drug treatments, conventional CPR and the use of hypothermia are now being coordinated with great affect - in one case reviving a man who'd been clinically dead for more than an hour. (Video Transcript) Rodney Whitmore is exercising in the physical therapy wing at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. It's part of his recovery regimen. Two months ago in his farm house, Rodney went into cardiac arrest. His heart stopped pumping blood and supplying oxygen to his body. Statistically, Rodney's...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- By all counts, the 54-year-old man who collapsed on a recent winter night in rural Minnesota would likely have died. He'd suffered a heart attack, and even though he was given continuous CPR and a series of shocks with a defibrillator, the man was without a pulse for 96 minutes. But this particular instance of cardiac arrest (http://www.mayoclinic.org/heart-attack/), reported first in Mayo Clinic Proceedings (http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com) online, turned out to be highly unusual: "The patient made a complete recovery following prolonged pulselessness," says anesthesiologist and cardiac care specialist Roger White, M.D. (http://www.mayoclinic.org/bio/10114106.html), lead author of the article. Emergency...

For Janis Ollson and her husband Daryl, wedding vows have taken on an entirely new significance. "In sickness and in health" was a promise made on their wedding day – and a promise they revisited just four months ago when they renewed their vows after 10 years of marriage. But as Ollson walked down the aisle this time, she leaned on a cane for support and had a prosthetic leg. It was, in many ways, a miracle she made the walk at all. It's been about three years since Ollson, who lives in the Canadian province Manitoba, went under the...

Health Reform: The white coats showed up again at the White House, helping the administration ram health care reform down our throats. Can you have a bipartisan bill without a bipartisan vote?It didn't work the first time, when the White House last year assembled enough sympathetic medical professionals to stage a photo-op in the Rose Garden trying to persuade us that, as the commercial goes, three of four doctors really, really support the administration's attempt to nationalize health care. Rather than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, last year's event was a classic case of astroturfing. Attendance was by invitation only,...

Open heart surgery generally conjures up images of a long, painful, rib-splitting slice down the middle of the chest. But doctors at the Mayo Clinic are hoping to change that. Heavy lifting goes with the territory for Teresa Van Hauer. She's in the sales territory for a designer shoe and boot representative, meaning she's lugging around 40- to 45-pound cases quite a bit. However, a failing heart valve threatened to close all her accounts. "And when that happens, it is, literally, you're just toast," she said. A critical valve in her heart was crusted with calcium deposits and worn out....

PRESIDENT OBAMA is a great admirer of the Mayo Clinic. Time and again he has extolled it as an outstanding model of health care excellence and efficiency. ...So perhaps the president will give some thought to the clinic’s recent decision to stop accepting Medicare payments at its primary care facility in Glendale, Ariz. More than 3,000 patients will have to start paying cash if they wish to continue being seen by doctors at the clinic; those unable or unwilling to do so must look for new physicians. For now, Mayo is limiting the change in policy to its Glendale facility....

Health Reform: President Obama suggested last summer that the Mayo Clinic was the model for government medical care. On Monday, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona stopped taking Medicare patients. Now what? If the nonprofit Mayo Clinic is "what works," as the president believes, then it's clear that government health care doesn't. If Washington can't manage a system with fewer than 50 million participants well enough for those who paid for it to get care, then it sure can't run a program that will eventually include every person in the country. Obama's comment didn't go unnoticed at the Mayo Clinic. While...

Phoenix - The Mayo Clinic in Arizona, as of tomorrow, will no longer accept patients who are on Medicare. Medicare patients are no longer going to be accepted due to the fact that the compensation paid out by Medicare is apparently not adequate to make up for the cost of care taken on by the clinic. What this means is that many patients on Medicare are either going to have to begin to pay in cash, or be turned away to go elsewhere outside of the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic has roughly 3,000 patients on Medicare who see their...

"Low reimbursements have led one West Valley medical facility to stop taking certain Medicare patients, a pilot program that an Arizona health-care expert says may become a long-term trend in the industry." "For Mayo Clinic, the cost of providing services to Medicare patients exceeded the total amount paid on behalf of Medicare patients by $840 million in 2008, according to the hospital." "Mayo Clinic was the first health-care system to go in this direction, and I don't think they will be the last," Rivers said. "Everyone else is facing the same pressures as Mayo Clinic, and I won't be surprised...

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

About 3,000 Medicare patients who’ve been getting care at a Mayo Clinic facility in Arizona will have to pay out of their own pocket or find another doctor. Starting in 2010 (i.e., next week), the five primary care docs at a Mayo outpost in Glendale, Ariz. will stop accepting Medicare. Patients in the program who choose to stick around will be on the hook for about $1,500 per year, Mayo spokesman Michael Yardley told the Health Blog. The clinic expects that most of the patients will find another place to get their primary care. “We know it’s been incredibly difficult...

The Mayo Clinic will stop accepting Medicare patients at one of its primary care clinics in Arizona. Why? The government doesn’t pay enough: [snip] This is nothing compared to what might happen under Democratic health overhaul plans, which would slash Medicare spending by nearly $500 billion over 10 years.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study has found that the amount of vitamin D (http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-mchi/4904.html) in patients being treated for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (http://www.mayoclinic.org/non-hodgkins-lymphoma/)was strongly associated with cancer progression and overall survival. The results will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (http://www.hematology.org/) in New Orleans. "These are some of the strongest findings yet between vitamin D and cancer outcome," says the study's lead investigator, Matthew Drake, M.D., Ph.D., (http://www.mayoclinic.org/bio/13726218.html) an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "While these findings are very provocative, they are preliminary and need to be validated in other studies....

Based on this detailed, comprehensive Mayo Clinic definition, one that I believe perfectly describes Obama, it's obvious he needs prescription medicine and extended psychotherapy. Our country is in tremendous danger with a person suffering from this complex mental illness in our White House.

The renowned Mayo Clinic is no longer accepting some Medicare and Medicaid patients, raising new questions about whether it is too selective to serve as a model for health-care reform. The White House has repeatedly held up for praise Mayo and other medical centers, many of which are in the Upper Midwest, that perform well in Dartmouth College rankings showing wide disparities in how much hospitals spend on Medicare patients. The model centers have capitalized on their status to insert into health-care legislation provisions that would result in higher Medicare payments for hospitals that do well on the Dartmouth rankings...

Politics: The administration stages a photo-op with handpicked doctors who support its health care reform. Fortunately, most doctors still believe that the first rule of medicine is to do no harm. It would seem some doctors still make house calls. Some 150 of them made one at the White House Monday in an attempt to give a booster shot to the administration's chaotic and stalled health care reform drive. Rather than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, this was a classic case of AstroTurfing. Attendance was by invitation only, and 40 of the 150 were said to be members of Doctors...

The Anchorage Daily News has a very interesting editorial that reveals that the celebrated Mayo Clinic has lost millions because of Medicare over the last year. In its editorial the ADN is warning that the public option is "as unhealthy as Medicare" because of the artificially low payments the government remits to healthcare providers, doctors and hospitals. President Obama and the left love to point to the Mayo Clinic as one of America's premier medical institutions and rightfully so. But the ADN reveals that the clinic lost $840 million on it's $1.7 billion worth of Medicare work. ADN notes that...

Specifically, Mayo reiterated its view against what's been called the "public option" and emphasized the importance of end of life discussions with a patient's physician. "We do not support the creation of another government-run, government price-controlled, Medicare-like insurance plan," Mayo says in a document. On Tuesday, Mayo released two documents, "A perspective on current health reform issues from Mayo Clinic" and "A foundation for health care reform legislation." One of the perspectives is co-authored by Mayo CEO Dr. Denis Cortese. The purpose of the documents is to refocus Mayo's message on health care reform, outline processes legislators can follow in...

Reading the transcripts of President Obama's "town hall meetings" this month on heath care reform is painful. He's preaching the right gospel, but the parishioners are getting restless. The harder he tries to sell his program, the louder and angrier the debate gets — and the more the general public tunes out the politicians. It reminds me of the polarizing Iraq debate of several years ago. Forgive the analogy between war and health care, but maybe Obama needs the medical equivalent of a Gen. David Petraeus — that is, a professional who can break through the political chaff and describe...

The Mayo Clinic continues to adjust to changing economic times, but leaders not only want Mayo Clinic to be a destination medical center, they want Rochester to be a destination medical community. "Here we come, so get ready." Mayo Clinic CEO Doctor Glenn Forbes says Mayo Clinic's financial numbers are better than expected, largely because they're becoming more efficient, but he says their work is just beginning. "The future is still filled with many uncertainties particularly in the area of health care. We're committed to continuing to build the models that are going to be successful in the future." That...

Obama Loves Mayo, But Mayo Does Not Love Him (Update: Gibbs Responds, Badly) Throughout his push for health-care reform, President Obama has held up the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as an example of great medicine at lower prices—something that could and should be emulated all over the country with guidance from his health care overhaul: Obama, June 11: "And so what you’ve got is a situation where, for example, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is famous for some of the best quality and some of the lowest cost. People are healthier coming out of there, they do great." Obama,...

A world-renowned clinic that President Obama held up as an example of good medicine said Monday that the American people would be "losers" under the House's health care proposal, joining the growing chorus of critics the Obama administration is trying to fend off as the debate intensifies from Capitol Hill to Main Street. Minnesota's not-for-profit Mayo Clinic, which Mr. Obama has repeatedly hailed as offering top quality care at affordable costs, blasted the House Democrats' version of the health care plan as lawmakers continue to grapple with several bills from each chamber and multiple committees. The Mayo Clinic said there...

The Mayo Clinic, which President Obama has touted as a model for the rest of the health care system, has delivered a blistering critique of the House Democratic health care bill: "Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite."

Even dumber than the time he claimed Caterpillar had promised to re-hire workers if the stimulus passed, only to have the CEO tell reporters about five minutes later that the stimulus wouldn’t work fast enough to let them re-hire workers. And the Mayo shall lead us: Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.

President Obama has repeatedly praised Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic as a role model for health care. But the Mayo Clinic is not so enamored of the House Democrats’ health care reform bill. On the Mayo Clinic’s health care blog, the clinic’s reaction was thus: “Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. “In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or...

Concern about how a public health care plan might affect Minnesota's health care system dominated a public forum on Friday sponsored by Mayo Clinic. Dr. Douglas Wood, who chairs the clinic's division of Health Care Policy & Research, said a public plan modeled after the Medicare system has the potential to do serious harm to health care in states like Minnesota where quality is high and costs are low. "If it's a government-run plan with government price controls, that could be highly detrimental to states like Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and all across the northern tier of the United States," Wood...

President Obama often points to the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as one model for repairing the nation's health care.In interviews he has cited statistics showing that the Mayo Clinic spends 20% to 30% less on health care than other hospitals yet produces better patient outcomes. Some industry watchers point to Mayo's staffing model — primarily its practice of hiring doctors as salaried staff rather than independent, fee-for-service contractors. Hiring its own staff gives Mayo more control over its doctors, says Jason Gurda, a hospital analyst at Leerink Swann. "Most hospitals don't tell doctors what to do — they...

Clinic researchers are reporting positive results in early leukemia clinical trials using the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an active ingredient in green tea. The trial determined that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can tolerate the chemical fairly well when high doses are administered in capsule form and that lymphocyte count was reduced in one-third of participants. "We found not only that patients tolerated the green tea extract at very high doses, but that many of them saw regression to some degree of their chronic lymphocytic leukemia," says Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Mayo Clinic hematologist and lead author of the study....

Rochester officials say members of Saudi Arabia's royal family spent enough during a visit to the Mayo Clinic to give the area's economy a shot in the arm. City officials say Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz arrived in the Minnesota city on Nov. 15 for a checkup at the Mayo Clinic and was accompanied by at least five princes and hundreds of others.

This morning at around 7:30 a.m. on CNN it was reported that Mr. McCain spent 2 hours at a hospital yesterday. No reason given for the visit. I believe the report was that he was at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Has anyone heard anything more about this??? There is no link on Google or Drudge as to this visit but it was seen on CNN this morning.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A woman is suing her gynecologist for allegedly not telling her that he accidentally cut open a tumor he removed from her ovary, spilling cancerous tissue in her abdomen and causing her cancer to spread. The lawsuit, filed in Polk County District Court by Lavonne Schroeter, alleges that Dr. Curtis Hoegh's negligence during and after the operation "will cause her premature death." The lawsuit also names his employer, Iowa Health Physicians and Clinics, as a defendant. The 53-year-old Schroeter says the Des Moines doctor removed her tumor in 2002, but he never mentioned it was cancerous...

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a protein interaction that may explain how the deadly Huntington's disease affects the brain. The findings, published in and featured on the cover of the current issue of Human Molecular Genetics, show how the mutated Huntington's protein interacts with another protein to cause dramatic accumulation of cholesterol in the brain. "Cholesterol is essential for promoting the connection network among brain cells and in maintaining their membrane integrity. Both the level of cholesterol and its delivery to the proper locations in the cell are essential for the survival of neurons," explains Mayo Clinic molecular biologist Cynthia...

$69 can get you a trace of the commonly used lethal industrial substance... It's one of the deadliest imaginable poisons, a radioactive substance about 100 billion times as deadly as cyanide -- and a Web site run by a physicist and flying saucer enthusiast offers to sell you a trace amount of it for $69 and send it via the U.S. Postal Service or UPS. Contrary to early news reports, polonium-210 -- the poison suspected in the death of an ex-Russian spy in England -- is not some exotic material available solely from nuclear laboratories. The isotope is available from...

Gerald Ford in Minn. hospital for tests 8 minutes ago Former President Ford was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota on Tuesday for "testing and evaluation," his office said in a statement. The statement gave no details about why the 93-year-old former chief executive went to the clinic in Rochester, about 75 miles southeast of Minneapolis. "No further releases or updates are anticipated prior to early next week," said the statement issued from Ford's office in Beaver Creek, Colo. Ford also has a home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Mayo Clinic spokesman John Murphy confirmed the statement but said he...